UPPERMILL’S war memorial has been restored after being left damaged in an act of ‘mindless vandalism.’
The cross on top of one of the obelisks in St Chad’s Gardens was knocked off and left cracked on the ground following the disgraceful incident, which is believed to have taken place either late on Sunday, May 14 or in the early hours of Monday, May 15.
The discovery was made by Oldham Council’s district environment team on May 15.
But three months later, it is back to its former glory after work by local stonemasons from Heritage Conservation Restoration.
Heritage collected the damaged stone to use as a template to carve the new top section of the cross, which was damaged beyond repair.
But a replacement piece was then hand-carved at the firm’s workshop in Mossley, with the details perfectly replacing those in the broken piece, before being mechanically fixed into what remained of the existing cross.
The restored cross was then transported back to Uppermill Park, where it was carefully lifted and fixed back to its original position on the existing column on Tuesday, August 22.
Repairs also included replacing a section of the plinth stone, which was also damaged in the incident.
Michael Goulding, director of Heritage, said: “We are really proud to have been asked to restore a piece of history in our local community and we are really pleased to see the monument restored back to its former glory.
“The new piece of stone has been refixed with a slate dowel rather than previous stone dowel, to ensure longevity of the repairs carried out.
“The new piece was hand carved to match the existing patterns and in a few years, the new piece of stone will change to be more similar to the existing stone.
“It will be so embedded that the vandalism will be a distant memory, so locals and visitors alike will enjoy the monument for years to come.”
